Firsts can be few and far between deep into MLB careers.
But Chicago Cubs utility player Ben Zobrist, a 16-year veteran of the League, managed to snag one. He had never been ejected, at any level of professional baseball, ever – that’s 1,562 game in the majors alone – until the ninth inning of the Cubs vs. Brewers game Tuesday afternoon.
The mild-mannered 37-year-old couldn’t hold his anger in any longer after home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi made a couple of questionable strike calls throughout the game. So in the ninth inning, he unleashed the most Ben Zobrist burn of all-time, getting him booted.
Zobrist told Cuzzi: “That’s why we want electronic strike zones.” And that was that.
Source: Torrey Hart, Yahoo.com
Link has video of Zobrist’s comments after the game, as well as a chart of the pitches in the AB that got him upset.
While I didn’t like how Zobrist and the Cubs used the Mets a couple of years ago to establish his “market” price as a FA 2nd baseman that the Mets SA had hoped would be a better choice over FA Daniel Murphy – the worst decision, IMO, any Mets GM ever made However, I fully agree with him and MLB’s Eric Byrnes that the auto strike zone would vastly improve the integrity of major league baseball. Thanks for this article.